"Intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is reviewing how prepared the government is to block and respond to hacking by AI. Officials will look at policies around how AI companies should report cyber-incidents to the government, and how cooperative companies should be during and after an attack.

It will also investigate whether the current laws and systems are adequate to stop AI and how government systems can be strengthened.

The shadow industry minister, Andrew Hastie, called for Australia to develop its own domestic AI capability, instead of relying on the US.

“If there’s rogue AI agents out there, we need to have our own defensive AI agents protecting Australian government data, our private sector and other things that are important to us,” he said.

The Greens demanded Labor call in the new US ambassador, David Brat, to establish what the president, Donald Trump, knew about the attack.

“This breach by a foreign AI company on an Australian government database is deeply alarming and brings home the risks that these out-of-control tech corporations pose,” the Greens’ acting leader, Mehreen Faruqi, said.

“The fact that the government did not even know it happened is disturbing.”